Page 3 of The Weight Of It All
Reed barked out a laugh. “Not to my knowledge.”
“Or just people’s hopes and dreams?”
His shoulders shook as he laughed. “And the souls of small children.”
I nodded. “Sounds about right.”
His eyes were warm, matching his Colgate smile. “Okay, height first,” he said, nodding toward the chart on the wall. He levelled off the top of my head with his pen and wrote down his findings. Not that I expected my height to change a great deal. “Five-ten,” he confirmed. He collected a tape measure from the desk drawer and, clearly not having any personal space issues, measured my chest, waist, each thigh, and each bicep.
“Last time I got measured was for my sister’s wedding,” I said as he did his measure-and-write thing. “Couldn’t tell you what the measurements were.”
“How long ago was that?” he asked. “The wedding?”
“Three years ago.”
“Nice,” he said politely.
“Hmm, maybe. The suit lasted longer than the marriage though. Clearly I got the better deal.”
He balked. “Oh. Sorry.”
I snorted. “Don’t sweat it. She’s been engaged to someone else since then too but freaked out before the wedding. She’s latched onto some other poor guy now.” I shook my head. I loved my sister, but she treated marriage like interior decorating and changed with the seasons. Gay and lesbian peopleweren’t afforded the same luxury in this country, and it was a sore point for me. If Graham and I could’ve had the wedding we’d once wanted… then I remembered I didn’t have a Graham anymore.
“Hop up onto the scales for me?” Reed asked. He obviously wasn’t privy to the nosedive in my thoughts and mood. With a reluctant and somewhat petulant sigh, I did as he asked. “Then we’ll take a photo for your ‘before’ picture, and when you reach your goal weight or the fitness level you’d like to achieve, we can take an ‘after’ picture.”
I heard what he said, but I was stuck staring at the numbers on the scale. Surely they were wrong. Could digital scales even be wrong?
Reed’s voice was soft beside me. “You okay?”
I was speechless and horrified and embarrassed. “Holy shit,” I whispered.
One hundred and fourteen kilos.
Triple figures. One hundred and fourteen fucking kilos.
I stepped back off the scales, feeling light-headed and dazed. I’d never been this weight. I think the last time I weighed myself was about ten years ago, and I was eighty-five kilos. How the fuck was I one hundred and fourteen kilos? And the worst part, was that Graham was right. I was overweight. I’d let myself go. I stopped taking care of myself.
“Fuck.”
Reed put his hand on my arm. “Like I said, Henry, you’re in the right place. We’ll get some goals written up, a workout plan, a diet plan. You’ll get your life back. And your boyfriend. We’ll have you looking so damn good, he’ll be begging you to take him back.”
I nodded numbly. I was truly in shock. I had no witty comeback. I had nothing funny to say.
Reed gave me a pitying, reassuring smile. He snapped myphoto for his stupid before picture, and all I could think of wasone hundred and fourteen kilos.
He stood in front of me and put his huge hands on my shoulders. “Henry, look at me.”
I blinked rapidly and tried to shake off my shame. I looked him right in his pretty eyes, feeling every part ofBeauty and theObeseBeast. “Is this where you sing ‘A Tale As Old As Time’ and I give you a library?”
He quirked an eyebrow and fought a smile. “What?”
“Never mind.”
“You can do everything I set out for you, and I’ll be with you every step of the way,” he said. “You’ve got this.”
He told me to be there at eight in the morning, ready to change my outlook, ready to change my life.
I went home in a daze. I considered calling Anika, but she’d only tell me I was perfect the way I was, and one hundred and fourteen fucking kilos begged to differ. So instead, I ate the remaining leftover cheesecake from the fridge, and cried.
